First full week of summer vacation! I feel so wonderfully relaxed and a tiny bit lazy but hey, that's what being a teacher is all about! Sweet, sweet, summertime!

Believe it or not I have been busy but in a wonderfully "gettin' things done" kind of a way! Here is my Frive for Friday. Link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching to see some more!

Started the week with my toes in the pool and a little BBQ fun at a friends house. It was much needed after a crazy last week at school!

I started my to do list yesterday. Painting the living room was first on the list and I got it done. Feels great to make progress!

Today....redoing the littlest littles' room. I told her turquoise and green would get old quickly but she didn't believe me. Now it's up to the primer to try and cover it!

I really didn't want to post this one but it was part of my week. I got my room all packed up and moved across campus. I'm waiting for the room to get cleaned before I start setting up so that's still on my to do list. For now I just look at this picture of my empty room with a lot of saddness. There are too many changes happening next year and it's going to take some time to accept them all.

I am excited some new products I am developing for Kindergarten! I have finished 5 of the first 6 weeks of first grade centers for my morning word work routine.

I also have been pretty busy finishing up Daily Math Review for first grade. I figured I should finish that before I leave first grade so they have something to remember me by! Ha!

Quarter 4 is in the works! I'm thinking I need to get started on a Kindergarten set otherwise I won't know how to start my math time next year :(

1. Fun in the sun. I am a little bit of a sun goddess. I know it will be horrible for me when I'm "older" (HA! I think I'm technically OLDER now) but I'm ready to shed this see through white skin for a tanner version of myself.

This is my favorite spot along the creek in Oak Creek Canyon. I'm praying we will be able to go this year after the huge fire there. It's just horrible seeing our beautiful canyon burn.

2. I want to paint! I've been putting off painting {a lot} of walls in my house and this time of year is perfect to finally get started because there is nothing else on plate. Right?

I think this is even the color I picked out!

3. Work out. Um, yeah. I'm that girl. I've been saying I'm going to get serious about this since January. I just haven't been able to get that fire under me to get going. I'm just sure summer will solve that (huge eyeroll here).

4. I'm hoping we can take another little road trip this summer. We have great memories from our trip to Iowa last year and some fun family time is in order!

5. I NEED a day at the beach. Just one. I'm not picky. I think I will be heading to my sister's atleast once this summer. (Lori, you have been warned!)

6. A little good reading.....any suggestions?

My last few favorites were....

Ok...in all honesty I haven't finished Allegiant yet.

I heard it's painful to get through...but I'm gonna try.

7. I have the urge to get hooked on something on Netflix. We just finished up Breaking Bad which was great but we recently got much faster internet so I'm excited to try something new. I welcome suggestions there too, however remember, I have to keep the hubby happy too.

8. I love getting crafty, but never have the time. I always have big plans for the summer!

This space is NOT in my house but I wish it was!

9. Excited! I'm excite to go to the ISTE conference in Atlanta this summer with a colleague. I want to learn some new tips and tricks in the technology world!

10. I know I'm not supposed to say anything school related but I can't help it! I'm excited to sit down, drink a cup of coffee, do a little creating, and blog until my little heart is content. I'm starting a new grade level next year (hello Kindergarten!) so I have lots to make to get me started!

That's my list! Don't forget to link up with Mrs. Jump's Class and make your own list!

Yesterday was the last day of school, hence the late Five for Friday. Plus I got the added bonus of the stomach flu on the last day, yeah me! I laid on the couch all day and felt sorry for myself so I think I'm all good now. My husband says if he gets it he's going to kill me, so if I disappear you know where to look.

Before I came home and crashed I did have a good end of my year. I'm going to miss these little buggers. Here's some of the fun we had this week:

We got to finish up our last project for balance and motion (this was actually last week!) I always finish it up with the pencil trick. Students get a wire and a clothes pin and that's it! No directions except for this, "Balance the pencil on it's tip on the edge of the balancing stick". They have to figure out how to use the clothes pin as a counter balance. It usually takes about 20 minutes before anyone "gets" it, but as soon as they see they all can give it a try. It's my FAVORITE science lesson because it really stretches their brain!

We had field day on Wednesday and one cutie drew a picture of me squirting her on the water slide. That's literally my job. Squirt every kid coming down the water slide. Awesome!

We had some fun art this week. I already shared these earlier in the week but here are a few more. Ideas courtesy of Deep Space Sparkle.

I also included the recipe for this fun stuff earlier this week. Check out my post here!

I'm stealing this one from Doodle Bugs Teaching! I'm on summer break starting right now! Now if my tummy would just cooperate I could do a little celebrating!

Do you struggle with what to do the last week of school? I always do! It's usually the time you want to start putting things away or completely packing up so you don't have to stay for WEEKS after school is out. Once stuff starts coming down they get straight up crazy. So this year I was determined to fight those last week of school blues and try some fun stuff to keep them engaged and most of all HAPPY!

First off....I call it Oobleck but I know it's not. It's more like slime. They loved watching it change from a liquid to this slime and then we wrote how to stories on how to make the stuff. It was a complete afternoon of learning with no craziness! (ok....just a tiny bit of craziness)

Here is how we made "it":

2 cups of water (warm/hot)

1 cup of glue

2 tsp of Borax

1 cup of water (warm/hot)

Mix the 2 cups of water with the glue and stir to get it all mixed in. (great activity for busy hands!) In a separate container mix the Borax in one cup of water. Dissolve the Borax completely.

**I did this next part under the doc cam so they could all get a good view

Mix the 2 mixtures together slowly stirring the whole time. It will start to turn into goo right before your eyes!

I grabbed a little handful out for each of them and put it in their hands. They played with it for awhile and then we sent it home in a ziplock bag with their own How To story on how to make it. It was a fun afternoon!

Our next project was today. My classroom is (halfway) packed up and my room is looking pretty bare. I knew it was going to be a long day so I planned a little painting for the morning. We read A Color of His Own by Leo Leonni and then made these amazing little chameleons.

This lesson plan is from Deep Space Sparkle. I love all of her stuff, I have stalked her for years!

This was one full hour of blissfully engaged first grade students listening to instructions, using fun materials, and more importantly being risk takers. There was not one "I can't do this" or "This is too hard" and every single one turned out beautifully. It was the icing on the cake to our year.

So there you go! 2 great ideas to keep your kiddos engaged the last week of school. Tomorrow is my last day! Woohoo! However it's my last day as a first grade teacher for a little while anyway and starts my new adventure as a Kindergarten teacher. I have LOTS of feelings about this....but that's another post all together!

Hello friends. I've missed my little blogging addiction but I have been SO BUSY! Preaching to the choir right? It's that time of year!

I didn't have my Morning Word Work ready this morning (I'm out...last week and all). I also didn't have my Daily Math Review copied and ready to go (I'm lazy...last week and all). I'll tell you what my kiddos RELY on these routines to keep them going! Note to self....keep ALL routines in place right up to the very last second of school!

At the beginning of last year I started work on some daily math review pages. I made one quarter and then it just sat. I have another set (you know from a book...) that I have always relied on. However, they are not aligned to the CCSS so they are a bit OLD and review skills that my kiddos pass by in August/September. Seriously! I came up with these and used them until they ran out. Then I went back to my good ol' stand by cause I was out of steam.

I've had great feedback from this one unit in my store and some requests to make the other quarters. So I got a little motivated this weekend (shocker right?) and finished up quarter 2. I'm excited about these but a little sad too. I'll be teaching Kinder next year so my friends will benefit from these but I will not. Sigh.

I've upped the rigor on the second quarter pages too. My first sets were pretty simple but it's a good way to train the kiddos.

Here is a sample of quarter 2.

I've also included joining story problems with the unknown in all positions. It would be my focus if I was teaching first (sniff, sniff). 3rd quarter will include all subtraction problems. I plan on including compare problems and a good mix of all the rest in the 4th quarter. Problem solving every day is so important!

So if you would like to take a peek at these they are available in my store now and I've put them 50% off for the first 24 hours (or so...) They might just stay that way if I forget to go change it!

I'm excited to get the rest of these done so I can focus on some Kinder Math Review this summer. I have a lot of prepping to do before I plunge back into that end of the pool!